How do you foresee the worldwide obsession of 'social networking' continuing?

I wish it existed when I was younger. I would have loved to find a willing female sex slave much earlier in my life.

Social networking is a great thing and I love it. I love being able to stay in touch with my family and friends that easily. I love my friends and family so very much. I think some people can’t understand the fact that whatever they post can be seen by others. Posting nude pics of oneself is not only against facebooks (the one I use the most) but is also a good way to give yourself a bad name. Badmouthing people is a good way to start negative drama in your life as well. People need to act like adults and remember that social networking is very much public. I think that it has a very positive future. It is such a great tool for keeping in touch with the people in your life!

I think Facebook is the future – though I dislike it. Cameras are everywhere, the new generation texts and wants everything instantly. People will have no privacy and come to accept this. Maybe a Minority Report like future.

The combination of the two means even fluther will have facebook features – maybe within a year – by the changes I’ve seen here over the last couple of years. I think Second Life will be the thing – and we’ll be using our mouths more, again, and type less.

It was a great film and I can recommend it heartily. I don’t like Facebook but online connectivity is here to stay. I’m not so sure about ‘my life is better than yours’ as all lives will be much the same as so much of it will be lived online. It would be good if poorer people of the third world could get online and make the world a true ‘global village’.

Great question! Like @flutherother said, wouldn’t it be nice if we could get more of the world’s population online to share their needs and experiences? Of course, that would require either learning more languages or developing better auto-translators, in addition to the technology side of it.

Surprisingly, there is a fair amount of technology that already exists and just isn’t tapped into. For example, take Second Life. Online classes are held there by businesses and universities. Your avatar attends a lecture, and then it is opened for a Q&A. The users can talk via voice-chat to either a single person or a group. SL uses translators so that you can IM with other members in their own languages. I met my fiancé on the site, and we now are friends with other former members from several different countries on Facebook.

And on the subject of FB, it has the capability to create groups. I made one for my high school class, and we now have about ¼ of our graduating class in it. It has been a delight to get back in touch with them, and it will make our upcoming reunion that much more fun. A couple of friends have their own businesses and use FB to showcase their latest projects. One friend is a minister, and he posts information about the church, including upcoming events, news about members, and a weekly newsletter.

And look at the dating sites. Several friends, including my brother, met their partner on one.

As for web-camming, I’ll admit that my SO and I have spent several 6–8 hour days chatting away using them. We’ve probably talked more to each other than some married couples. I’ve even taught my 85 year old mother how to web-cam and encourage anyone far away from loved ones to give it a try.

So, what is in the future? Hopefully, utilizing more of what we already have and inventing new technology. There are so many possibilities with live connections. Imagine a politician holding online forums where people could participate in a Q&A session and take polls on topics. Some neighborhoods have groups that watch out for each other…what about creating a site where they can connect with each other to let neighbors share information? The list could go on…and I hope the ideas and developments do.

Two possibilities:

Social networking will become the foundation of human fellowship; where personal pages are fluid representations of souls and all communications are based on socially relevant, creative collaboration rather than idle chitchat, shallow posturing, emotional torture, etc.. The term “education” seems almost a misnomer when comparing its history to the intuitive sharing and building of information from mind to mind to mind that thrives in this globally connected, omnilingual, group-interactive, holographic “augmented-reality,” where ignorance is seen only as an opportunity for the creation of new knowledge, understanding and awareness, and where the future is always in the now. There will be no privacy, because there will be no intolerance—all of us, simply explicitly Human.

Or:

It will be the very last testament of our demise: “OMG OMG OMG OMG ITS RLLY HAPPENING PRAISE JESUS PRAISE JESUS PRAISE JESUS REPENT! REPENT! AMEN AND RETWEET #apocalypse #obamaistheantichrist”

The key to the future of social networking will be information retrieval. There is so much information out there and the problem is sorting through it. We’ll need software that will learn what we want and be able to deliver it to us. It’ll probably take software that can learn—artificial intelligence. Made for prime time artificial intelligence, that is.

Its all a trend of closer communication through the ages, despite more alienation in its most intimate form of commonly greeting and engaging with people.. Just one step closer to humanities ultimate fate of pure assimilation with technology, to where all biological functioning becomes obsolete.. The internet has made me cold, I need rehab, just kidding, I love the internet.

The obsession will pass and it will become something normal. Like it was with the telephone decades ago.

^ Gets my vote. And I hope you’re right.

Technology/communication hasnt really seen the light in terms of the impact that it will have. Im just imagining World of Warcraft, although with not just realistic graphics(!) but possibly enhanced asthetics and astounding depth to venturing into a wormhole of total new discovery and potential. virtuals worlds. f$%^ the world. ?
This is my extremist side talking. everything will be ok.!